A weird side-effect of the blistering cold and gusting winds beating up the D.C. area this week: The weather actually forced me to do my first speed workout since … well, let’s not go there. The forced workout came after I spotted a terrible little snow tornado out my window right before my lunchtime five-miler. I headed to the treadmill instead, where I did the following:

1X1 mile at 7:30-minute-mile pace

2X .5 mile at 7:15-minute-mile pace

4X .25 mile at 7-minute-mile pace or below (the last one was more like 6:30-minute-mile pace).

This was a change from my standard treadmill speed workout, 3 X 1 mile at 7:30-minute-mile pace, and it felt great! Let me clarify: After it felt terrible and demoralizing and exhausting, it felt great—which is sort of what we’re going for with speed workouts, right?

What’s your go-to speed workout? Do you have different ones for the treadmill and track (I do mile repeats on the treadmill and Yasso 800s outside)?

I’m always on the look out for new ideas for jazzing up a treadmill workout. I’m sort of confused on what you did though. You ran a mile at 7:30 pace… then a mile at 7:15 pace… and then a mile at sub-7 pace? What does the 2x… and 4x… mean?

Oh! Sorry for the speedwork jargon. That means that rather than just running three miles (or three miles straight, for that matter), I rested for about a minute between each rep. So I did a mile, then rested. Then half a mile, then rested. Then another half a mile … and so on.

Haha. The clarification is spot-on. Great workout! I have a hard time (mentally) with multiple intervals and varying distances. 3-6xmile or 4-8×800? No problem. But making it a variety pack like yours my brain refuses to cooperate and I psych myself out. Basically I just do mile repeats and 800s. A few times I did 200s.